What’s Holding Women Back? — Beth Collier Communication, Creativity & Leadership Strategist

I really liked debate class in high school.

Researching a topic, making an argument, persuading my classmates.

Good stuff.

But debates online?

Not my thing.

Because a lot of people posting online don’t want to listen or learn.

They want to attack – and fight.

And things can get real snarky (and mean) quickly.

I’m a nice girl from Indiana – that’s not how I play.

But then, while scrolling through LinkedIn, I saw a post that had me typing before I could tell myself not to.

Debbie Wosskow, a serial entrepreneur, shared a post about the percentages of women who hold FTSE 350 Board positions.

Unsurprisingly, that number is less than half.

She also noted that less than 10 percent of the FTSE CEOs are women, and called for us to make things better for the next generation.

Nothing really controversial here, right?

Well, not to one commenter, who argued that she shouldn’t focus on percentages, and that quoting numbers “only scares people away” and “shifts mindset from solution to victim.”

“As a woman, you’re not a victim – you can achieve what you want,” he wrote.
“Be assertive, have a plan, find a mentor.
“Go and get it. The only person stopping you is YOU.

I was expecting the next line to be in the voice of Billy Zane’s character in Titanic:

“A real man makes his own luck.”

Debbie responded that she disagreed with his take, and that numbers kept us accountable.

“You’re being ‘competition centric’ instead of ‘customer centric’, a common mistake,” he responded to her, likely unaware of how patronizing his comment sounded.

(Note, Debbie Wosskow is a serial entrepreneur, whose achievements include selling her business LoveHomeSwap for $53 million. She probably knows a thing or two about customers.)

He then added:

“You don’t sell more bread by setting (sic) up other bakeries on fire, you make better bread.”

OK…

But that implies that women aren’t on boards or other leadership positions because they aren’t good enough.

If you made better bread, you’d be running the world!

Arguments like that come across as naive at best, and privileged and ignorant at worst.

Because as any woman in business (and many informed men) will tell you, that’s not how the world works.

We’d like to think business is a meritocracy, but it isn’t always.

And while skills, talent and work ethic matter, there are other things at play here.

Let’s start with bias.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that society has different expectations of men and women, and that we use different words to describe their behaviors.

Men get to be passionate. Women are emotional.

Men can be assertive. Women are bitches.

Men are direct. Women are cold.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella can talk about the importance of enthusiasm in leadership, but an enthusiastic woman needs to be careful, as her positivity might be interpreted as a lack of “gravitas” or the “executive presence” needed to lead.

And the man who leaves early to pick up his kids is a “good dad” while the woman who does the same thing “isn’t committed to her job.”

Women in business can experience sexism, sexual harassment, and maternity discrimination that affects their career trajectory and financial success.

Acknowledging those realities doesn’t mean that men can’t also be on the receiving end of harassment and sexism.

But let’s be real: the statistics show us that more women have had their careers hurt or derailed by these things. And maternity discrimination is something only women — more than 50,000 each year (in the UK alone) — experience.

And I haven’t even mentioned the Motherhood Penalty or the Gender Pay Gap, which continue to persist.

And these things don’t go away even when a woman makes it to the top.

Remember when Aviva CEO Amanda Blanc was told by shareholders that she was “not the man for the job” and “should be wearing trousers instead”?

You might expect to hear those comments in 1982, but they were said at a shareholder meeting in 2022.

Even she – a woman who has held senior roles in insurance for more than 30 years – said at the time, “The more senior the role I have taken, the more overt the unacceptable behavior.”

And when it comes to entrepreneurs, let’s look at funding.

Women-owned businesses get between 1-2% of the VC funds in the US and UK.

It’s not because women aren’t good at running a startup, as research from BCG found that startups founded and co-founded by women are significantly better financial investments.

So, even when women are “baking better bread,” they still struggle to get investment to build their businesses.

So how can you explain the lack of females at the top?

Is it because women don’t have the right mindset?

They’re not assertive enough?

It’s possible.

But it’s also possible that women in business face a different set of challenges, and are in a system that wasn’t built for them.

You can be a bright, hard worker and rise the ranks because of it.

But it won’t necessarily be enough to get you there.

And “success” won’t make you immune from certain realities of the workforce and society.

To make things better, we have to recognize that the system is not built for equity — and we can’t solve all the problems by simply fixing ourselves.

We need to confront our own bias, and we also need to create cultures where both men and women can thrive.

I want my daughter and son to grow up in a world that acknowledges they both have the potential to “make the bread.”

So let’s make sure they have access to the kitchen – and feel like they belong when they get there.

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Beth Collier loves writing, pop culture, and sharing ideas.

She also loves helping companies, leaders, and teams improve their communication (and creativity and leadership) through consulting, coaching, and workshops.

Her clients benefit from Beth’s global corporate experience, Midwestern practicality and enthusiasm, and an endless supply of pop culture references.

To find out how Beth can help you become a more confident, creative, and compelling leader – or improve communication in your company – visit www.beth-collier.com or drop her a line at beth@beth-collier.com

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